What Janie's Hair Symbolizes

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Their Eyes Are Watching God is written by Zora Neal Hurston. The novel is written during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. During the Harlem Renaissance African American culture began the flourish. People were beginning to recognize and support African American; however, there were still laws against African Americans and people were still prejudice towards them. Their Eyes Are Watching God is a story about a woman, Janie Crawford, who was divorced two times before she fell madly in love with her third husband, Tea Cake. The story showcases her trials and tribulations to finding true love. When she married her second husband, Joe Starks, he makes her put up her long and beautiful hair in a head wrap so other men will not be attracted to her. Janie puts down her hair for the first time in twenty years when Joe dies, taking off the head rags symbolized the constraints imposed for women by powerful men. Janie was raised by her grandmother whom she called Nanny; she never meets her mother or father. Janie and Nanny lived in the back of the Washburn’s house, which was a white...

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